Highly sensitive information about the pay of Charterhouse’s management duo, Gordon Bonnyman and Lionel Giacomotto, emerged as the pair took the stand at the High Court in London last week in a dispute over the value of a former Charterhouse director’s shares.

Executive chairman Bonnyman received £5.803 million in salary, bonus and co-invest – profits from investing in Charterhouse’s funds – in the 2012-13 financial year, according to David Chivers QC, who is acting for former executive Geoffrey Arbuthnott in his legal action against Charterhouse and current and former colleagues.

Managing partner Giacomotto, who jointly runs the firm with Bonnyman, received £4.5 million in 2012-13, another of Arbuthnott’s lawyers, Andrew Thompson, said. Giacomotto’s income remained strong following the financial crisis: he received

£4 million in salary and bonus in the financial year 2009-10 and this rose to £6 million in 2010-11 before falling to £4.6 million in 2011-12, Thompson said in court last week. The firm had a bonus pool of £42.8 million in 2012, and £39.6 million in 2011 and £41.4 million in 2010, according to witness statements from Bonnyman and Giacomotto filed at court.

The case relates to Arbuthnott’s claim that the respondents tried to force him to sell his entire stake in the firm for £1.35 million in November 2011. This valued Charterhouse at £15.15 million, which Arbuthnott says is less than its true value. He is now petitioning the courts to get an independent valuation of the shares. The case continues.

When questioned on the firm’s bonus pool following the downturn, Giacomotto said it was “a bit ironic” that bonuses remained high as it was an “exceptional” time. He said that the firm had quickly invested money from its eighth fund and this was shortly followed by the financial crash. In his witness statement, he commented on the 2010 bonus pool: “Because of the economic climate, we had not managed to exit many investments. This meant that management fees continued to be paid for longer than expected, inflating the size of the bonus pool.”

Giacomotto added in court: “This is a highly paid and high-risk industry. When you look at our industry you can’t look at short-term remuneration, you have got to look over 10 years.”

Speaking in court last week, Bonnyman said that he viewed Charterhouse as “a band of brothers” and “not a corporate entity”. He said that he and a group of senior directors might have left Charterhouse to set up their own fund if they had been forced to buy Arbuthnott’s shares for a higher price.

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Bonnyman said: “I would have left and if circumstances had permitted, I may have set up a competing fund. I should be retired by now. My view at the time, and that of my senior colleagues, was that we did not need to work there and would not work there, if someone had forced us to pay more.”